And it was proposed to appropriate $250,000 to sustain them. There is a wonderful alarm at the idea of coercing the seceding States; great dread in reference to the power of this Federal Government to secure obedience to its laws, and especially in reference to making war upon one of the States; but the public property can be taken, your flag can be fired upon, your ships driven out of port, your gallant officer, with a few men, penned up in a little fort to subsist as best they may. So far as the officer to whom I have just alluded is concerned, I will give utterance to the feelings of my heart when I express my profound approbation of his conduct. He was put there to defend the flag of his country. He was there not as an intruder. He was there in possession of the property owned by the United States, not to menace, not to insult, not to violate rights, but simply to defend the flag and honor of his country, and take care of the public property; and because he retired from a position where he could have been captured, where the American flag could have been struck and made to trail in the dust, and the Palmetto banner substituted, because he, obeying the impulses of a gallant and brave heart, took choice of another position; acting upon principles of humanity, not injuring others, but seeking to protect his own command from being sacrificed and destroyed, he is condemned and repudiated, and his action is sought to be converted into a menace of

war.

Has it come to this, that the Government of the United States cannot even take care of its own property, that your vessels must be fired upon, that your flag must be struck, and still you are alarmed at coercion; and because a gallant officer has taken possession of a fort where he cannot very well be coerced, a terrible cry is raised, and war is to be made?

I was speaking of the proposition brought forward in my own State to raise sixteen regiments. Sir, as far back as the battle of King's Mountain, and in every war in which the rights of the people have been invaded, Tennessee, God bless her, has stood by that glorious flag, which was carried by Washington and followed by the gallant patriots and soldiers of the Revolution, even as the blood trickled from their feet as they passed over the ice and snow; and under that flag, not only at home, but abroad, her sons have acquired honor and distinction, in connection with citizens of the other States of the Union. She is not yet prepared to band with outlaws, and make war upon that flag under which she has won laurels. Who are we going to fight? Who is invading Tennessee? Conventions are got up; a reign of terror is inaugurated; and if, by the influence of a subsidized and mendacious press, an ordinance taking the State out of the Confederacy can be extorted, those who make such propositions expect to have our army ready, to have their bands equipped, to have

their pretorian divisions; then they will tell the people that they must carry the ordinance into effect, and join a Southern Confederacy, whether they will or not; they shall be lashed on to the car of South Carolina, who entertains no respect for them, but threatens their institution of slavery unless they comply with her terms. Will Tennessee take such a position as that? I cannot believe it; I never will believe it; and if an ordinance of secession should be passed by that State under these circumstances, and an attempt should be made to force the people out of the Union, as has been done in some other States, without first having submitted that ordinance to the people for their ratification or rejection, I tell the Senate and the American people that there are many in Tennessee whose dead bodies will have to be trampled over before it can be consummated. [Applause in the galleries.] The Senator from Mississippi referred to the flag of his country; and I will read what he said, so that I may not be accused of misrepresenting him : —

"It may be pardoned to me, sir, who, in my very boyhood, was given to the military service, and who have followed that flag under tropical suns, and over northern snows, if I here express the deep sorrow which always overwhelms me when I think of turning from the flag I have followed so long, for which I have suffered in ways it does not become me to speak of; feeling that henceforth it is not to be the banner I will hail with the rising sun, and greet as the sun goes down; the banner which, by day and by night, I am ready to follow.

But God, who knows the hearts of men, will judge between you and us, at whose door lies the responsibility of this."

There is no one in the United States who is more willing to do justice to the distinguished Senator from Mississippi than myself; and when I consider his early education; when I look at his gallant services, finding him first in the military school of the United States, educated by his Government, taught the science of war at the expense of his country — taught to love the principles of the Constitution; afterwards entering its service, fighting beneath the Stars and Stripes to which he has so handsomely alluded, winning laurels that are green and imperishable, and bearing upon his person scars that are honorable; some of which have been won at home; others of which have been won in a foreign clime, and upon other fields I would be the last man to pluck a feather from his cap or a single gem from the chaplet that encircles his brow. But when I consider his early associations; when I remember that he was nurtured by this Government; that he fought for this Government; that he won honors under the flag of this Government, I cannot understand how he can be willing to hail another banner, and turn from that of his country, under which he has won laurels and received honors. This is a matter of taste, however; but it seems to me that, if I could not unsheathe my sword in vindication of the flag of my country, its glorious Stars and Stripes, I would return the sword to its scab

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bard; I would never sheathe it in the bosom of my mother; never! never! never! Sir, my own feelings in reference to that flag are such as must have filled the heart of that noble son of South Carolina, Joel R. Poinsett, when, nearly thirty years ago, in an address to the people of Charleston, he declared,

"Wherever I have been, I have been proud of being a citizen of this Republic, and to the remotest corners of the earth have walked erect and secure under that banner which our opponents would tear down and trample under foot. I was in Mexico when the town was taken by assault. The house of the American ambassador was then, as it ought to be, the refuge of the distressed and persecuted; it was pointed out to the infuriated soldiery as a place filled with their enemies. They refused to attack. My only defence was the flag of my country, and it was thrown out at the instant that hundreds of muskets were levelled at us. Mr. Mason a braver man never stood by his friend in the hour of danger — and myself placed ourselves beneath its waving folds; and the attack was suspended. We did not blanch, for we felt strong in the protecting arm of this mighty Republic. We told them that the flag that waved over us was the banner of that nation to whose example they owed their liberties, and to whose protection they were indebted for their safety. The scene changed as by enchantment; those men who were on the point of attacking and massacring the inhabitants cheered the flag of our country, and placed sentinels to protect it from outrage.

"Fellow-citizens, in such a moment as that, would it have been any protection to me and mine to have proclaimed myself a Carolinian? Should I have been here to tell you this tale if I had hung out the palmetto and single star? Be assured that, to be respected abroad, we must maintain our place in the Union."